


Glissando

by ruric



Series: The Symphony Series [2]
Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: Community: stagesoflove, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-02-15
Updated: 2006-02-15
Packaged: 2017-11-07 23:24:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/436585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruric/pseuds/ruric
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Do you believe in love?" Holland had asked him. Set during episode 1.21 - Blind Date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glissando

Lindsey’s earliest memory is of hearing her voice, her words rising and falling around them, spinning stories of myth and legend. Long, involved tales that she made last for days of heroic princes and beautiful princesses, malicious and capricious gods, of wars fought and sacrifices made for love and honor.

If he closes his eyes he can hear her laughter as they’d begged her to continue for a few more minutes just to find out what happened next. He can feel the worn cotton of the comforter tucked under his chin, her fingers brushing his forehead and a softly breathed promise that the end of the story would be all the sweeter for waiting just a little longer. After his sisters died, after they lost the house, there’d been hardly any laughter and she’d still told the stories, but by then he was old enough to hear the bitter catch in her voice.

His mother had given him an appreciation for language, awoken in him the hunger to sway people with the simple power of words. He didn’t need a blade or guns to defend himself, not whilst he had his wits and his tongue.

Lindsey knows exactly what money and power can buy, he’s spent the last twenty years of his life learning the lesson, so when he needed help he took the only thing he had and offered it to Angel.

The truth about his life and himself.

Holland asked whether he believed in love, and Lindsey had been startled to find out that he did. But not the self love Holland had spoken so easily about, not the “ _sharp, clear sense of self a man gains once he’s truly found his place in the world_.”

It wasn’t until he sat opposite Holland, his heart pounding against his ribs and the metallic taste of Lee’s blood on his lips, still warm on his skin, that he finally realized, so many years later, he’d absorbed much more than a love of language from hearing her speak.

So he’d betrayed the firm, betrayed Holland and never doubted he made the right decision. Not when he felt the children shiver in his arms, not when Angel turned and he saw the warmth in solemn brown eyes that held his gaze.

Hours later and his words hang in the empty office after Holland has left.

“You may not know me as well as you think you do.”

Closing the doors to the office, shoulders and hip resting against rich walnut veneer, he takes a deep breath – no retreat possible from this course of action. Sinking down into the leather chair, hands tracing the top of the desk, lifting the phone off the hook, he turns to look out of the window at the bright lights of the city.

Somewhere out there Angel is waiting.

He can only hope the vampire will understand the decision he’s made tonight.

~fin~

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [](http://stagesoflove.livejournal.com)stagesoflove community for the second of the Stages of Love Feb/Mar 2006 challenge (romance).


End file.
